Good old Days, Bad old Days, and New Beginnings
by ThaleaiAndMelpomene
Summary: After years of leaving Hillwood Helga is back in town. Memories of her childhood are flooding back. How will she take being back in her old stomping grounds after swearing never to return? There is only one way to find out.


Rain beat down on Helga's umbrella as she walked the rain soaked pavements of Hillwood. Seemingly no one was out in the considerably bad weather. All tucked away behind the walls of their homes as they waited the weather out. Grey clouds over casted the sky as water droplets pelleted the earth in great secession. Still Helga walked down the sidewalk of her old home town. Rain seeped into the bottoms of her pant legs, but she didn't care.

Helga for one liked the ran. The was something rather poetic about it. Not poetic where it was meant to signify the inner sadness and turmoil one would experience as the earth wept for them, but the kind of poetic that spoke of tranquility and stillness. Everything seemed to still as it rained. Business and other building stood quiet almost picturesque in the rain as it played it's rhythmic song along the earth. It's melodic nature soothed her as took sloshed steps down the street. Yes, Helga liked the rain.

It had been years since she had lived in Hillwood. Long since cursed the city for all the bad memories from her childhood and poor upbringing. She had swore at eighteen never to return to the blasphemed city. But the she was in her old neighborhood. looking at the buildings she long since left but were never quiet forgotten. It filled her with nostalgia. That kind of nostalgia that only one can get from distance and time to reflect on the past.

Helga had approached her old elementary school, P.S 118. She stopped to look at the stone and brick building. It looked a lot older now. The red and white bricks where now dull and faded. She remembered the time Arnold and the rest of the kids were sitting on the steps in front of the school reading her little pink book. She had just spent the night in Arnold's closet only to fall asleep and have to book it to school before he had gotten to the last page. She remember that as soon as she saw the offending book she had ripped out the last page as fast she could and through a spit wad at him.

She also remembered the time where she had convinced Stinky to pretend to be her boyfriend. She had went up to the guy during lunch and asked him, as if she was offering a business deal, to be her boyfriend. She had dragged the poor lug all over town. They went to the library to act all couple-y to try and make Arnold jealous. She had dragged him to the roller rink and ended up hurt trying to do some elaborate stunt. She had even dragged him down to the park. All dressed up in 1800's garb they ran down the walkway of the park, past Arnold and Gerald, who were playing catch, and into a pond with a swarm of bees chasing them. It was not one of her most shining moments. After a quick trip to the hospital she had decided to call it quits and broke up with her pretend boyfriend. Then out of some weird twist sort of fate Stinky actually ended up liking her and Arnold of all people had tried to set them up! The whole thing was pretty comical now, even though at the time all it did was frustrate her.

Helga continue her walk. A cold wind blow down the street. She held the umbrella close to her body as she tried to warm up her chilled hands. Puffing warm air into her hands she came across the boarding house.

Boy, did this place hold a lot of memories. She had snuck into the place more times then she could count. Always trying to get something or find something out or to simply be near the one she held so dear to her heart. It had gotten so bad the that his grandparent became accustom to the girl jumping through windows and crawling through air ducts. It was kind of hard to stay aloof after crashing through the ceiling in front of them. She hadn't known they knew about the rest of the times before they told her when she was sixteen.

Helga remembered the time when she had stood outside Arnold house on Christmas day in nothing but her socks. She had given up her treasured Nancy Spumoni snow boots in order to find a missing daughter for a person she didn't really know. But she wouldn't have done it any differently if given the chance. The look on the young boy's face was enough to warm her from head to toe as she looked through the window at his goofy football shaped head. She would have given up ton of Nancy Spumoni snow boots if it meant the kid could still believe in miracles.

A soft smile graced her face as she thought back to that smile. It wasn't the only time she had seen it on Christmas. When she was seventeen she had been invited in by Arnold himself as his girlfriend. She didn't have to climb through the window. She didn't have to scale the roof or put on some disguise in order to come in. She walked right through the front door.

As soon as she had come inside she was bombarded with helloes and Merry Christmases. Arnold had come to the rescue with a bright blush on his face and apologized for his family's eagerness. The was nothing to really apologize for though. She loved his family, however strange and unconventional they were.

The rest on the evening had went off pretty much as she had predicted loud and rambunctious. The boarders were one minute laughing and having a good time the next yelling that Oskar had tried to swipe some of the presents from under the tree. There was a big commotion when Arnold and her were caught under the mistletoe as they all made the way to the dinning room for dinner. Both as red as a beet, Helga gave a shy polite kiss on the cheek.

Dinner was with talking and embarrassing stories. Not just about Arnold but Helga too. Phil had told Arnold about some of times she snuck into the boarding house. But Arnold took it in great stride. Even laughing at the mention of the time she had pretended to be an antique collector in order to get her locket back. Criminy, she was a basket case.

Maybe that's why things with Arnold didn't work out then.

Fourteen years of unrequited feelings and insecurities doesn't just go away over night. No, Helga Pataki had a hard it accepting that all her pining and waiting her feelings were received. For some reason she couldn't accept that Arnold loved her and with that came doubt. Then doubt turned into suspicion. Suspicion turned to anger. Anger led to fights and in those fights accusations and harsh words were thrown.

It had gotten so bad by the time graduation had come around the two had decide to end things before the went off to college.

Helga kept making her way down Vine street. The rain had lightened up a bit in the time she stood outside the Sunset Arms. Rain hit Helga's pink umbrella less frequently and the air began to warm up a little. As she kept walking she passed Mr. Green's butcher shop. She passed Mrs. Vitello's flower shop. She passed Gerald Field were her and her classmates would play baseball. She passed all that. And as she passed them memories would pass threw her mind. Some of them were of the fun times she would have with friends. Some of them were of the moments her and Arnold had shared. Some were sad and nearly brought a tear to her eye.

She kept walking with all those thoughts and memories swimming through her head until finally she stopped.

It wasn't a purposeful stop. No it was one of those stops that stopped you from thinking. The kind that locked your muscles and joints from moving. The kind the made your heart race even though you where standing perfectly still. The kind that demanded your full attention whether you want to give it or not.

There right in front of her, Helga had stopped at the blue and white house. Like the elementary school it had grown older in looks. The old once bright red door was now dinge and chipped. Weeds grew through cracks of cement and scaled up the pale blue walls. The occupant had all moved on a long time ago.

This was not a place Helga remembered fondly. It had been a big part of the reason had left Hillwood in the first place. This was not a place that Helga had ever really called home. It was fought dark and at times barely had food in it. Not because of poor finances but because poor negligence. Her mother was often to drunk to function. She would go to the store it buy groceries only to leave them on top of the car and go home and go to sleep. Miriam Pataki and sobriety were not to thing that seemed together.

Big Bob wasn't much better. Ask anyone about him and the word 'blowhard' usually came up. He was a loud and angry man. When he wasn't working at the beeper store her was complaining about something at home. Nothing ever seemed to please the man. He complained about the house wasn't cleaned enough, that there wasn't dinner when he got home, that she hadn't done as much as her older sister Olga, and that she should be like Olga. But she wasn't Olga.

Olga was a whiny little prima donna that cried when ever things weren't perfect. After Olga had finished her never ending college career she had gotten a heavy dose of reality. The seemingly perfect family she had come to know was unveiled as nothing short of dysfunctional. Within a month of being back home she had found out about their mother's drinking problem. Olga immediately dropped her into AA only to have her quit after two weeks. During that time Olga had a hard time finding work. With dealing with Miriam and constantly job searching even Olga couldn't keep up with Bob's demands. Olga would sometime cry herself to sleep wondering what happened to her mommy and daddy. But if she had to give it to her sister, at least she tried to fix that wreck of a family.

Helga had grown use to the way her family acted. So use to it that it had come to no surprise when things had gotten worse. They had all grown sick of each other and their antics. Fighting broke out often; between Bob and Miriam, Bob and Helga, Heck even Olga got into fights. When Helga had packed for college she was all to ready to go.

Helga thought she would never see this place again. Within a year of her moving out so did everyone else. She still kept in contact with them, though not very often. Yeah, this brick blue house left a bitter taste in her mouth. She continued to look though the dark windows 'til someone called her name.

"Hey Helga!" called the voice.

Helga was broken from her thought as she addressed them, " Hey Arnold, what are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," he said as he approached her. "I finished the unpacking and thought you might want to see it. Besides Miles here wanted to come play in the puddles."

Three feet away from where they were standing was a four year old with a slightly football shaped was jumping and splash in his gum boots and slicker. Helga looked and smiled at the boy as he was having the time off his life playing in the rain. She look back at Arnold who seemed to have forgotten to bring his umbrella with him. She stepped closer to him as to cover him with hers. She kissed her husband and gave him a warm smiled before, "Okay, lets go home."

It was good to be home.


End file.
